Human pyramids and throatsingers to be named 'cultural treasures'

Source: The Guardian

An invisible golden thread links the gingerbread makers of Croatia, the carpet weavers of Azerbaijan, the young men dressed as women rampaging with prams and brooms through the Flanders town of Aalst, the Peruvian scissors dancers regarded as too diabolical to be allowed into churches, the devout hoppers of Echternach in Luxembourg and the French cooks preparing a four-course banquet bookended by aperitifs and liqueurs: all will solemnly be considered by a Unesco committee meeting in Kenya this week for inclusion among the world's cultural treasures.

The world heritage sites scheme, also administered by Unesco, is very well known, judging places including Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and the Pyramids as among the most precious on Earth.

But the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity scheme, established only in 2003, is far less famous – though the number of signed-up states and nominations for inclusion is growing steadily.

This week when the committee meets for three days in Nairobi, it will consider 47 nominations from 29 countries, as well as four traditional skills now practised by so few people – including throatsinging in Croatia and the construction of traditional Chinese wooden junks with waterproof bulkheads – that they are regarded as in danger of extinction.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/nov/14/unesco-intangible-cultural-heritage-of-humanity

:bounce:

Picked up thrtsnging there and brought back to tara tuva area

Imho

really?

who rampage through a town with brooms.

this just seems like a huge waste of money that the UN could be spending on other things like fighting diseases or things that actually make a difference

saving Croatian cake decorators just doesn't rank up there on my list of important things to do

Because the calendar flips.

October 26, 2009

The Voladores of Papantla, or flying men of Mexico, carry the country's ancient heritage into the present, with a breathtaking ceremony of music and dance staged atop a giant pole. The ritual, which is said to be some 1,500 years old, has recently been named a world heritage site by UNESCO. (Agence France-Presse)

Don't miss your chance to see the Voladores of Papantla every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night on the Malecón in downtown Puerto Vallarta. This fantastic folkloric show features Indians from the Papantla region dressed in brilliantly colored traditional costumes and performing riveting aerial dances.

You won't believe your eyes as voladores climb to the top of a tall pole, wind ropes around the pole, and then leap off into the air! As the ropes unwind, they descend slowly to the ground while the caporal plays a drum and flute - invoking an ancient spiritual offering in the form of a spectacular aerial dance. And, at a designated point in the performance, the flyers launch themselves head first toward the ground, spinning and descending toward the ground.

...

A Totonaca myth tells of a time when there was a great drought, and food and water grew scarce throughout the land. Five young men decided that they must send a message to Xipe Totec, God of fertility so that the rains would return and nurture the soil, and their crops would again flourish. So they went into the forest and searched for the tallest, straightest tree they could find....

(More at) http://www.banderasnews.com/0910/nb-thevoladores.htm

Surely, surely, they've made that one up.

Or gingerbread making competetons? Or rich meals of four or more courses? Wouldn't merely keeping a record of these things suffice? Do we have to make sure they don't end?

On the bright side, gii thing no one preserved the rich cultural traditions of human or animal sacrifice.

I'm sure UNESCO will find a way to do it, of course, elevating the trivial and non-essential form to the status of permanent substance.

Let chauvinism reign.

It and UN need to get priorities right

Homogenized commercial mass culture is junk food for the mind and soul. If our government as well as the United Nations provided exponentially more support for grass-roots cultural expression -- especially including folk culture and throat singing instead of being the world's foremost supplier of arms and carbon pollution, we would have a better world.

This is the sort of thing UNESCO should support. Cultural diversity is just as important as environmental diversity for the future of our planet and should not be tied to short term economic goalss. Do you really want each cultural activity to have to make a profit to justify its existence? Why not burn down all the schools and museums and just have pornography and gladitorial combat?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_throat_singing

Some examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnGM0BlA95I